


Terms of Endearment

by phoebesmum



Category: Sports Night
Genre: Ficlet, M/M, Romance, Schmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-01
Updated: 2009-12-01
Packaged: 2017-10-04 01:41:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoebesmum/pseuds/phoebesmum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes Casey is lost for words.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Terms of Endearment

**Author's Note:**

> Written April 2007, for Oxoniensis's 'Hugs, Cuddles and Kisses' challenge. Prompt: Casey/Dan – _darling_.

They are men, the two of them. _Men_. Manly men, who speak as men do.

It's men who write the songs: _Words of love_ and _Love me tender_, _Oh my love my darling_. Men write them, but no man, no _Man_, ever speaks them. Maybe, just maybe, in the heat of passion, but even then, only to a woman. Never to another man.

_Honey_, Casey used to call Lisa, back when they were married, or _hon_, but usually he just called her by her name. Lisa; Lees. He looks at Danny when he thinks Dan doesn't know, watches him bent over his computer, typing rapidly, brow knotted in thought, and his heart aches with love and need, but when he opens his mouth it's to talk about that day's play, about an unexpected trade-off, about a win, a score, a save. He imagines dropping a casual endearment into the talk – but what? Not _honey_. Not _darling_. Not, for the love of god, _sweetheart_. Which leaves him – what options?

He says _Danny_, and he tries to fill the word with all those other words that he knows he'll never say, and when Dan looks up at him and smiles he believes his message has been heard.

He used to hold hands with Lisa, back in the early days, send her flowers, throw his arms around her and spin her around until the two of them were breathless, laughing, dizzy. Now those gestures are subsumed into manly backslaps or punches to the shoulder; only, sometimes, furtively, something more intimate: fingers trailing along a forearm, a touch to the small of the back, a hand cupping the nape of a neck. So little, so very, very little, to express so much, so much that's inexpressible.

Sleep never comes easily to Danny, never has. Casey pillows his head on Dan's chest, drifts peacefully away. He feels Dan's fingers slide through his hair caressing, stroking, and hears Dan whisper one word, one Casey would have never thought to hear from his lips.

Casey smiles faintly and drops a kiss against his lover's bare skin, knowing that if he were to speak Dan would indignantly deny everything.

_Love you too, Danny_, he whispers soundlessly, and closes his eyes; warm, secure, beloved.

***


End file.
